Readout - Prime Minister Carney meets with the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers' Association Français
Prime Minister Carney and the leaders discussed ongoing negotiations with the United States, and the work to pursue a deal by July 21, 2025. They discussed the impacts on the sector and the need to build up a made-in-Canada supply chain as well as diversify our trading partners.
The Prime Minister underscored the federal measures to safeguard Canadian auto workers and businesses from unjust tariffs, and the adjustment of counter-tariffs on July 21 based on the state of negotiations. Prime Minister Carney affirmed that the government's focus remains on securing the best deal for Canadian workers and industries.
The leaders also discussed opportunities to make Canada's auto sector more sustainable and competitive in the face of shifting trade relationships, market conditions, and supply chains.
This document is also available at https://pm.gc.ca
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
More soldiers, more money. Canada's top soldier extols benefits of spending boost
CALGARY – Canada's top soldier is looking forward to a boost in military spending that includes a pay raise for military personnel at a time when uncertainty on the world stage is high. NATO leaders — including Canada — have approved a plan to dramatically increase defence spending across the Western alliance to five per cent of gross domestic product over the next decade. Prime Minister Mark Carney said the move to five per cent of GDP — 3.5 per cent for core military spending and 1.5 per cent for defence-related infrastructure — will take place over the next 10 years. In an interview with The Canadian Press Saturday, Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jennie Carignan said work is underway to figure out how to distribute the almost 20 per cent pay hikes promised by Defence Minister David McGuinty. 'It's an envelope that will be adapting to what we need. Some of it will be a pay increase, some of it will be for benefit allowances for specific trades or specific functions,' Carignan said. 'Yes there will be a raise this year. Yes that's the aim so we want everything to be ready for the fall and winter time.' Carignan said the amount of the pay hike will depend on a soldier's rank and allowances will be allocated to specific trades where CAF needs more people. 'For example recruiting and training is a priority. We want to make sure we encourage instructors in our schools so they're going to be additional benefits as an example,' she said. Chief Warrant Officer Bob McCann said the extra pay and benefits will be a morale booster for military personnel. 'We're in a great space right now where there's a lot of attention on defence. For the troops this is outstanding because this is why we joined. We want to serve. We want to be part of Canada's defence,' McCann said. 'We want to have equipment to train so everything that's coming is truly positive and we do have 107 trades that are highly competitive with the civilian industry so getting folks in, getting them trained, takes the pressure off the troops that are already there.' Carignan said it's been a good year for recruiting with the CAF surpassing its objective by 2,000 for the first time in 10 years. She said fewer people are leaving the service as well. About 18 per cent of the new recruits are women. 'A very good retention rate and a lot more people coming in which means we are growing at CAF at the moment and very positive.' Carignan said plans are in place to boost the number of military personnel. 'We are focusing on going back to our full complement of regular Canadian Armed Forces members and reserve force so it's 30,000 reserves we are aiming for and 71,500 regular forces,' she said. 'We have additional positions that are also approved and as time goes by and we are close to our ceiling we will add additional forces.' Carignan said the extra funding will help keep Canada safe. 'Our geography does not protect us as well as it used to. We need to have more investment to actually exercise our own sovereignty here in Canada and of course this implies the Arctic,' she said. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. 'It is getting more contested, more traffic, more people interested in this area so of course we have to invest more in the Arctic to make sure our sovereignty is respected.' Carignan wants to see more radar bases and being able to scramble jets or ships if required. 'We have to have the sensors in place — once you have seen you have to have the ability to intercept or actually act,' she said. 'This is all building blocks that goes to our providing that defensive posture we need to have in the Arctic.' This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 6, 2025.
National Post
2 hours ago
- National Post
Letters: Decoding Mark Carney. Wink wink, nudge nudge
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Readers comment on the PM's penchant for winking, the demise of the Digital Services Tax, milking the government for support, and more in the letters to the editor Mark Carney winks during a press conference in Ottawa in a file photo from Jan. 23, 2013. Photo by Sean Kilpatrick / The Canadian Press THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ARTICLES Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Justin Trudeau was a master at not answering even the most direct of questions. Mark Carney, on the other hand, appears to answer questions put to him, but always with subtle qualifications that border on disingenuity. For instance, Carney says he will make Canada an energy super power but without committing to building the pipelines or lifting emission caps that have frustrated this ambition for the past 10 years. Now, Canadians have to decode the meaning behind the prime minister's apparent fondness for winking, rather than saying what he really means, believes or thinks. Monty Python's 'Candid Photography' sketch (perhaps better known as the 'Nudge Nudge' sketch) only too well demonstrates the miscommunication that happens when gestures and innuendo replace saying what you really mean. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink, know what I mean? This newsletter tackles hot topics with boldness, verve and wit. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays) By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again Paul Clarry, Aurora, Ont. So the prime minister is a winker. This unfortunate habit has been on display frequently, according to reporter Joseph Brean. But this is not the only ocular problem Mark Carney has. There is of course the myopic capitulation he immediately reverts to if any policy offends Donald Trump. The tough guy 'tariff-matching-tariff' position meekly dissolves to secretly removing most of these tariffs. Our winking wonder was elected on the basis that he would stand up for Canada against Trump. There is precious little evidence of this. Marty Burke, Guelph, Ont. So much for 'elbows up.' Faced with pushback from President Donald Trump on the Digital Services Tax, Prime Minister Mark Carney folded like a cheap beach chair. Next on Trump's agenda will be getting Carney to remove preferential treatment to the dairy industry, which is especially beneficial to that industry in Quebec. Canada's protective supply management system always proves a stumbling block in any trade negotiations with America. Having Carney, a former banker, dealing with Trump, who perfected 'The Art of the Deal,' definitely puts Canada at a serious disadvantage in any trade negotiations. To think that Carney portrayed himself as the best person to negotiate with Trump during the election campaign. Trump is now in complete control, extracting whatever he wants from the prime minister, whose elbows are definitely down now. It would seem to me that the U.S. is being hypocritical in its complaints about Canada's supply management of dairy products. This advertisement has not loaded yet. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Canada does interfere with a full free market in dairy by limiting supply in order to support a healthy indigenous food supply chain. However the U.S. government uses other means to support its dairy industry. It sets minimum prices, it insures farmers from rising feed prices, and it buys surplus dairy products and gives them to institutions or warehouses them. This contributes to oversupply and what is in essence income supports for farmers. American farmers therefore have surplus production with which they want to flood the Canadian market. Is it not hypocritical for the U.S. to claim it must keep out certain imports to protect essential industries but not to recognize its trading partner's reciprocal rights? Isn't having domestic production of food the most essential of industries? Morris Sosnovitch, Toronto It is well-known that Prime Minister Carney has a remarkable resumé of career achievement, but one wonders if he has ever had a negotiating experience like the one he is currently facing with President Donald Trump. Giving in on the Digital Services Tax so that negotiations may proceed is like handing over your gambling chips to the casino without even getting a chance to put them on the roulette wheel. One wonders, then, why Tasha Kheiriddin suggests a further concession on supply management is inevitable and even desirable. One can only hope that nothing will be given up until every last cow has been milked. Sometimes the best negotiating tactic is not to negotiate at all. Patrick McKitrick, Burnaby, B.C. I am a retired member of the Law Society of Ontario (LSO) and read Emma Jarratt and Robert Cribb's article with great interest. In my day (I was called to the bar in 1986), lawyers in Ontario were trained by the LSO (then the Law Society of Upper Canada) to the highest ethical standards — i.e. full, true and open disclosure. To learn that the LSO no longer applies that standard to itself, vis-à-vis inquiries by the public of its own members, is totally appalling. 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars. But in ourselves.' Beverley A. Batten Simpson, Aurora, Ont. Jamie Sarkonak argues that Canadians are right to embrace a melting-pot immigration model because we're losing a shared sense of what it means to be Canadian. It's an understandable impulse — we all feel safer among the familiar. But that kind of thinking applies a double standard. Most people want to stay true to themselves — yet the melting pot metaphor implies others should give that up and conform. That's a contradiction: I get to be me, but you have to be more like me? That's not unity — it's the erasure of the identity of the other. Actually this tension between individual rights and collective identity has shaped Canada since Confederation. Quebec prioritizes collective values; the rest of Canada leans toward individual rights in the British tradition. That clash plays out in debates over private versus public — health care, education and religious freedom. And over safe injection sites, hate speech, MAID, and more. Canada thrives not when we all blend into sameness, but when we make space for difference. A shared identity doesn't mean uniformity — it means embracing diversity without demanding assimilation. Unity through individuality is what makes us strong. Desiring conformity is a tempting illusion — but realizing it undermines the very public good it claims to protect. Individuality is not the enemy of community; it's its foundation. Beware what you wish for. You might get it — and lose yourself. Being true to yourself is the best thing you can do for Canada. If Canadian gas exports do 'supplant other sources of gas from Russia, Eurasia and the Middle East' that would be an ethical win, even if it isn't an emissions win. When purchasers buy from Canada instead of Russia, they get the added benefit of not funding the invasion of Ukraine. The BBC recently reported that since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it has made three times as much money by exporting hydrocarbons than Ukraine has received in aid from its allies. Scott Newson, Nanaimo, B.C. It's true, I guess, Canadians got a tax break thanks to Mark Carney fulfilling an election promise, but it doesn't really feel like Ottawa is giving Canadians much of anything. It reminds me of the feeble GST holiday the Liberals gave us last Christmas. While any break is appreciated, Carney's largesse was actually predated by the tax break Donald Trump provided Canadians several days earlier. At the president's insistence and with no hint of disappointment, or winks, Carney axed another Trudeau misnomer by dicing the digital sales tax. To be fair, Ottawa had no choice but to sacrifice the tax if it had any hope of rejuvenating trade talks with the U.S. Now, if Donald Trump could only use his strong-arm tactics as the impetus to start dismantling Canada's supply management cartels. If successful, he will have done more to reduce Canadian taxes since being elected six months ago than two Liberal governments have done since 2015. Paul Baumberg, Dead Man's Flats, Alta. Re: New Ranger rifles bleed red dye in the rain — David Pugliese, July 3 (print) Defence officials say it will be up to taxpayers to cover the cost of replacing the stocks on the 6,800 new rifles for the Canadian Rangers, which are dripping red dye in the rain. It's estimated that could cost as much as $10 million. A coat of varnish would likely be cheaper. Charles Hooker, East Garafraxa, Ont. With the collapse of the postwar global order, Canada scrambles to redefine itself on the world stage. Mostly this is about trade and military buildup. But there's a critical factor that's been absent from news cycles, and that's our role to fill the chasm left by the abandonment of the U.S. in the arena of global development. Too often foreign assistance is met with platitudes about spending the money here, and our needs come first. But this simplistic notion is blind to the fact, as we've seen all too clearly in the past few years, that Canada doesn't exist in a self-sufficient vacuum. What happens around the world has a direct impact on our economy and indeed our very health. Helping the development of emerging countries into robust trading parters, with stable democratic leadership and the capacity to fight emerging diseases, is to our own benefit. The alternative is to push these states into the arms of hostile regimes. Along with a greater military presence in the world, it's critical that Canada also adopts a greater humanitarian stance through foreign assistance. Nathaniel Poole, Victoria, B.C. I was a young woman on the streets of Tehran on Sept. 8, 1978 — the day of the Jaleh Square massacre, known in Iran as 'Black Friday.' Thousands of peaceful demonstrators, many of them students, had gathered to protest the Shah's brutal rule, not knowing that martial law had been declared the day before. They were chanting for freedom, demanding the end of a dictatorship. I was on my way to join them. Before I could reach the square, a close friend of mine stopped me. He had just witnessed the carnage. 'They're killing everyone,' he said, his voice shaking. 'Bodies are piled up. There's blood everywhere.' The military had opened fire on unarmed civilians. As many as 100 were slaughtered that day, and more than 200 injured. I was devastated — not just by the scale of the bloodshed, but by the cold command with which it was carried out. That moment was a turning point for millions of Iranians. It was part of what led to the fall of the Shah's dictatorship. We rose up and succeeded in removing a tyrant. Yet now, Reza Pahlavi — the son of that same dictator — appears determined to betray the aspirations of the very people who ended his father's reign. By refusing to denounce his father's crimes and positioning himself as a leader-in-waiting, Reza Pahlavi is not merely out of step with Iran's democratic aspirations, he is actively working to undercut them, promoting another version of authoritarianism — dressed up in royalist nostalgia. There is a clear alternative. Millions of Iranians support the vision of a secular, democratic, non-nuclear republic as laid out in the Ten-Point Plan proposed by Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran. It calls for gender equality, religious freedom, the abolition of the death penalty, and a future without dictatorship — whether monarchical or theocratic. We must stand unequivocally with the Iranian people — not with those who would resurrect past tyrannies. Sara Fallah, International Coalition of Women against Fundamentalism, Toronto National Post and Financial Post welcome letters to the editor (250 words or fewer). Please include your name, address and daytime phone number. Email letters@ Letters may be edited for length or clarity.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Ex-fighter jet pilot Stephen Fuhr is on a mission to change how we arm the military
OTTAWA – Not that long ago, former air force fighter pilot Stephen Fuhr was just one among many voices in Canada complaining about the way the federal government makes big defence purchasing decisions. At no point, he said, did it occur to him that he would wind up in his current position – as the prime minister's point person for fixing Canada's sclerotic military procurement system. 'I find it very ironic that I was one of many that complained … why does it take so long?' said Fuhr, 59, in an interview with The Canadian Press. Fuhr knows first hand how the state of Canada's military procurement system feels to people on the ground – how byzantine government rules make vital equipment purchases move at molasses speed, leaving soldiers and pilots without the tools they need to fight a modern conflict. The once-prominent critic of former prime minister Stephen Harper government's management of defence – notably the original F-35 stealth fighter procurement process – is stepping up to change how the system works. Prime Minister Mark Carney named Fuhr secretary of state for defence procurement on May 13, giving him a new, narrowly focused junior role in cabinet. The Carney government's focus on reforming defence procurement is happening as new threats emerge on the world stage – and as Canada and other NATO allies come under heavy pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to ramp up defence spending by a staggering amount. Canada is also looking for ways to bolster its domestic defence industry and partner more with Europe as it pivots away from a more isolationist and protectionist United States. For the first time in a long time, the military is a core government priority. 'I feel good about it,' Fuhr said. 'Canadians are supportive of us being more involved in defence spending. There's a big opportunity for our industries and businesses in defence and being able to pull our weight on the world stage with our defence relationships.' It's also a moment of uncertainty – for Carney's government, for Canada and the world. Fuhr's background in the air force trained him to prepare for the unexpected. On Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists hijacked airliners and crashed them into major U.S. buildings, Fuhr was in Inuvik, where he was flying a CF-18 on force-projection exercises. He spent the security crisis patrolling the Arctic skies as events unfolded south of the border, then was sent to CFB Comox on Vancouver Island, where he was kept on alert until Canada relaxed its air defence posture. 'It was pretty surreal,' he said. 'In the moment, we don't know if there's more. We just know these airplanes are coming and they have to land somewhere.' He was in the Royal Canadian Air Force for two decades and at one point was in charge of overseeing all of Canada's CF-18 Hornets. Formerly a conservative-inclined voter, he made the jump into federal politics with the Liberals a decade ago after becoming frustrated with the contentious F-35 purchase. Fuhr warned that the cost of the deal was doomed to explode and that the process had gone awry. He was right: the budget for the F-35 purchase has since ballooned and Ottawa is conducting a review of the project in response to the Trump administration's trade chaos. Still, Fuhr shrugs off the idea that he would chime in with his opinions about the F-35 at the cabinet table. 'My strong opinions are 10 years old, and a lot has changed in 10 years,' the Kelowna MP said. But he could end up helping to decide how the next big-ticket items roll out. Carney made numerous defence commitments in the spring election. One of them was a promise to establish a new defence procurement agency to speed up equipment purchases for the military, and that agency falls under Fuhr's mandate. The party's election platform pledged legislative changes to 'expand risk-based approaches' to purchasing approvals, 'centralize expertise from across government' and 'streamline the way we buy equipment for the military.' Canada's military has suffered from peacetime budget woes under governments of various stripes since the Cold War ended. Major items of military equipment are nearing the end of their usable lifespan and new purchases are moving slowly through a risk-averse and slow-moving bureaucracy. For the past half century, military purchasing decisions tended to involve multiple government departments. Carney's plan for this new agency would create one main point of contact, as in wartime. 'We're trapped outside the technology cycle, which is a really difficult place to be, and we have to get it done faster. It has to be more organized. It has to be easier for industry,' Fuhr said. Canada, in other words, is pushing for a military comeback. Fuhr is fresh off of a comeback of his own. He became a Liberal MP in 2015, when he rallied support from unlikely corners like the local Green Party, whose candidate stepped down to endorse Fuhr. A former chair of the House of Commons defence committee, he's been around the political block. But he was defeated in 2019 by Conservative Tracy Gray. He didn't run in 2021 but returned to the ballot in April, and this time he defeated Gray. This isn't the first time the government has tried to reform procurement. It's also not the first time there's been a cabinet-level position tied to procurement. The Harper government tapped Julian Fantino as associate minister of defence to overhaul procurement, and Justin Trudeau's Liberals promised multiple defence procurement reforms in the 2015 and 2019 elections. Neither government moved the needle much – and both failed to spend enough to address the Canadian Armed Forces equipment gap. Fuhr insisted it's different this time. 'If it was ever going to happen, it's going to happen now,' he said. He said Canada has to make a major 'lift' to meet its alliance defence commitments and Carney 'wants to get it done.' When asked what he brings to the role, Fuhr pointed not to his time in the air but to his work on the ground with the military and his family's aerospace business, SkyTrac Systems, which they eventually sold. 'I know what it's like for industry to try and get involved in defence procurement because I lived that life for a while,' he said. 'I bring a well-rounded skill set, not just I flew airplanes.' Fuhr might be out of the military but he can't stay out of the skies. Monday Mornings The latest local business news and a lookahead to the coming week. Right up until he decided to run for office again, he was testing and certifying pilots on instrument ratings, ensuring they can fly by instruments alone. The retired air force major in his spare time flies a Vans RV8, an kit-built two-seater aircraft he purchased several years ago. The small, low-wing recreational craft is painted to look like a fighter jet – he even has a shark mouth painted on the nose of the plane. He may not have much time to get up in the air this summer. He'll be in and out of meetings with officials drafting up blueprints for the new procurement agency, sorting out its size and scope. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025.
